The Art of Breaking
by Tukiko K
Summary: In war, nothing holds him back and she's so fun to hurt. This is the art of breaking. - M for violence involving torture.
1. Chapter 1

_We're at war, we live like this_

~We Are Broken~

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes, wincing at the sudden spots appearing in her vision. Her head pounded and a sharp whining filled her ears, making her stomach turn with nausea. Opening her mouth to gulp in air to ease her stomach, an ache in her jaw caused her to groan instead. Her tongue felt thick and the taste of blood was bitter in her mouth. As her senses rushed back with consciousness, she felt pain all over her body and tensed up. She tried to send chakra to her wounds, but wasn't able to. Her chakra flow felt fuzzy…as if it were far beyond her reach. She was bound to a chair, chakra inhibited, and alone in the dark.

A candle flickered to life. Sakura lifted her heavy head and, ignoring the flaring headache, squinted at the bright flame.

"She's finally awake."

Sakura gasped at the voice at her ear.

There was movement and the shadows shifted. The candle light illuminated a pale face and bottomless, black eyes. The sight of Sasuke was unsettling.

"S-Sasuke…"

He frowned. "You sound surprised." He took a step closer and a strange glint filled his eyes as he looked down on her.

"Where am I?"

"Don't you remember…_Sa-ku-ra_?"

She flinched at the sound of her name on his lips. The chills running down her body had an odd calming effect on her, a resignation to the end. He'd always given her chills…but this…_this_ was different. She felt completely exposed and afraid. Was he going to kill her?

"Hn."

Her eyes snapped up to his direction.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Why are you doing this?"

He grinned and she could see the madness consuming him. "We're at war."

Sakura bit her lip to keep it from quivering, but when her teeth dug at the tender wounds on her mouth, she whimpered.

Sasuke circled her and stopped beside her. Kneeling, he observed her closely. She felt like an ant under a magnifying glass and turned away from him. She didn't understand why she was still alive. He'd had every opportunity to kill her…she hadn't made it difficult. Her headache pounded when she tried to remember the details. Why hadn't she listened? Why did her heart always make her so foolish?

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Sasuke's eyebrow arched. "Do you want me to?"

"No," she replied hastily. "I just thought—"

"You thought _what_?" Sasuke smirked. "That you're significant enough to make a difference? That you're enough of a threat that I'd need you dead?"

Sakura swallowed.

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Sakura? You are weak."

She shut her eyes and tried to tune out his words.

"You _always_ need to be saved."

She felt tears burning, prickling at her eyelids.

"That's why _Naruto_—" he said shrewdly "—will come looking for you."

Her eyes snapped open at the revelation and she looked up at him with horror. "You're using me as bait?"

There was an odd glee in his eyes. He was enjoying this. He was enjoying the pain he was causing her. She didn't understand what had made him crack, but it terrified her.

Why hadn't she listened?

~.~.~

"Do not engage! I repeat: if you encounter Uchiha Sasuke, do not engage!"

Sakura's brow furrowed. So he'd finally joined the battle. The question, though, is why would headquarters order them to stay away from Sasuke? He needed to be captured and brought back to Konoha.

"Sakura-chan, what do you think he's done?" Sai asked.

"I don't know."

Grimly setting her sight ahead, she continued sending chakra to her feet. They had to get to Naruto. They were his backup. Together, they had a chance of defeating Tobi once and for all—this war could end.

Lightning shrieked, streaking toward them from the shadows. Sakura, quick on her feet, swerved out of the path of the biting electricity. Someone, just on her heels, wasn't as quick and took the hit directly to the chest, sending him crashing through a tree. Sakura's eyes widened. She prayed that it was a mistake, that perhaps the shot had come from Kakashi and it was all just a mistake, but she couldn't deny the facts.

Kakashi was still with Naruto, leagues away, and she had never known her sensei to manipulate electricity in such a way. She turned her gaze from the fallen comrade and stared into the shadows ahead. She saw his eyes first. The blood-red and pitch-black pinwheel of the Sharingan appeared, glowing in the shadows, and caused those in her squad to go still with shock. He wasn't supposed to be there.

Sasuke emerged from the darkness with unnatural grace. He paused for a brief moment and observed those around him, the Sharingan taking in every detail. Sakura stared in disbelief and crippling fear. She could feel the ghost of Sasuke's hand suffocating her as she watched him. Cold chills crawled up her spine as her throat tightened and her lungs began to collapse.

He was so fast, flickering in and out of existence, his chokutō flashing with each precise strike. He moved through the forest from one opponent to the next as if performing a complicated dance. He was skilled and powerful, frighteningly beautiful in his graceful murder. Screams poured out, warning of battle, and the smart ones fled. Sakura was not among them. Blood thickened the air and she stood mesmerized. His beauty, unmatched, and darkness, all-consuming, intrigued her—terrified her. If she watched him forever, she was afraid she would lose the last of her sanity or maybe her very life, but still she watched. The darkest part of her soul fell deeper into the madness of loving Uchiha Sasuke. She longed for him to destroy her, she desired the end of it all and she realized just how broken she was. Horrified of the shadows lurking in her heart, Sakura tore her eyes away from Sasuke and felt cold tears leave ice tracks on her cheeks.

"SAKURA! RUN!"

She lifted her head at Sai's scream just in time to see Sasuke's attention snap to her. His intense eyes focused completely on her and the second his mouth formed a sadistic smile, her fear intensified. She turned on her heel and ran.

Sasuke took up the chase.

* * *

**A/N: **Another new multichap story. I hope you enjoy.

This particular chapter was started for SSM. The prompt is hostage.

This story was beta-read by wingedmercury. You are awesome!


	2. Chapter 2

_And I don't even need your love  
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough…._

~Somebody That I Used To Know~

* * *

Sasuke's new eyes narrowed.

A woman was just ahead in the clearing. Her pink hair was tied back and the red on her battle gear wasn't to accessorize—her hands were stained with blood and it intrigued him. Her green eyes flashed with anger as she sighted a fallen shinobi. She slowly kneeled beside him, one of her comrades that Sasuke had taken down only moments ago. Setting aside her sword, she examined the wounds with the healing green light that emanated from her hands. Sasuke thought she looked far too concerned about the shinobi, unaware of her surroundings, as if she were certain Sasuke wouldn't return to finish the job. He didn't like such confidence in her…it didn't suit her.

He watched her work with morbid amusement. Her attempts to heal the shinobi were pointless: he was certainly going to die. It was written all over Sakura's pale face: the way her brow furrowed; the way blood stained the lip she was biting too hard; the way frustrated tears filled her eyes. She knew she had arrived too late. He was amused by her frustration—by her vain attempts. He couldn't help but smirk when her head bowed in defeat.

Her scarlet hand rose to her face and wiped away the tears he couldn't see. However, when she stood, her movements were strong, so unaffected by the death surrounding her. She was resilient. He found the situation rather strange. When she lifted her head, he saw the blood had painted her cheeks like rouge. Oddly, he found her battle-worn appearance…attractive. Frowning at his twisted thinking, he realized that she didn't look like the Sakura he used to know. She was a stranger.

He stepped into the open and out of the shadows. Startled, Sakura's eyes widened and she jumped for her sword. Sasuke flash-stepped between her and the sword and she fell back in surprise. For a moment, she looked like a thirteen-year-old girl again, the useless girl that he always protected. He watched her carefully, waiting for the moment she would attack. Maybe there was no façade—no attempt to make him drop his guard. She reeked of fear. It was a pleasing smell; an honest smell. There was a nagging whisper in the back of his head that said it was wrong. She had never looked at him like that before. He smirked.

"Stop running. You can't escape me."

"Sasuke—you don't have to do this. You can come home," she breathed.

He snarled. "Liar." He glared into her sparkling emerald eyes. "You're just like everyone else, promising the impossible."

Sasuke's fingers twitched with the tingle of electricity and his eyes darted up to the sky. The inky clouds lit up with blue lightning and an echoing crash soon followed. Rain was suddenly released from the dark sky above, falling to the earth with a dull plopping sound.

"Whether you believe it or not, we actually care about you." Sakura stood and took a step closer to him. The blood on her face began to streak in the rain and loose strands of pink hair clung to her skin. "Don't make me fight you."

"But a fight would be so…_entertaining_." He grinned.

Sakura's eyes widened. "What happened?" she asked. "Why are you so eager to betray us?"

Sasuke's smirk disappeared as he glowered at her. He knew her question was honest and true of his character, but that didn't stop him from resenting her words. It certainly didn't stop him from wanting to hurt her.

Water rolled off his eyelashes and into his eye. He blinked. Sakura was far too confident. A snarl appeared on his face and he raised a hand to strike her, but she didn't flinch. Her hand clutched his wet wrist only inches from her face. Her grip was strong, too strong for a girl so small. Her eyes were narrowed and her jaw clenched. He felt her fingernails dig into his arm for a second and then her hand relaxed. What a mistake.

~.~.~

"Wake up."

Sakura didn't want to wake up. Dreaming was preferable to the darkness that would meet her open eyes. Her head was heavy and her eyelids refused to rise.

"I said, wake up."

Sakura cried out when she was back-handed. The impact jolted her senses and she found herself fighting back tears. She opened her mouth and let the bloody saliva drip from her lips. Aside from her torn lips and tongue, her jaw was already bruised and she feared that it was fractured. If she wasn't able to treat it soon it might become irreparable. She wondered how disfigured she looked.

"You could have avoided that if you simply did as you were told," Sasuke said snapped.

Sakura's nostrils flared as she looked at him. "I'm…not that same girl…who would obey your every word," she said thickly.

He looked down his nose at her. "When did that change?"

Sakura's face flushed with anger. "You don't know who I am. You _never _did."

Sasuke's smirk disappeared as he glowered at her. "So you still have some fight left." He sat on the chair across from her and bent forward, elbows against his knees and his fingers laced beneath his nose. "Interesting."

Sakura looked away and spat more blood out. She wondered just how long he would keep her hostage. It couldn't have been more than a day yet unless she had been unconscious longer than she thought. Her company would be searching for her by now…right? How many of them had Sasuke killed? She looked up and saw that he was still watching her. It was ironic. She would have given anything to have him look at her like that when she was a genin. She'd tried everything to get his attention, but nothing had ever worked. And now here they were. Complete strangers on opposite sides of a war, brought together by madness. What she wouldn't give to be invisible.

"You never answered my question."

Sasuke's eyebrow rose.

"What happened…to make you like this?"

He smiled and, oh, she hated it. "I found out the truth."

* * *

**A/N: **New chapter for you! Hope you enjoy.

I'm still working on chapter three, so hopefully I'll have that out to you at the scheduled three week mark.

Chapter beta-read by wingedmercury. She's awesome guys. Read her stuff!


	3. Chapter 3

_Here you are, down on your knees again,  
Trying to find air to breathe again,  
And only surrender will help you now._

~Again~

* * *

Sakura looked at Sasuke, her eyebrows furrowed. What truth had he discovered? What did he mean? She wasn't sure that she wanted to know the truth if it did to people what it did to Sasuke. Would she become as broken as he was? She leaned back into her chair and stared him straight in the eye, the debate between her head and heart evident in her mistrusting gaze.

"What's the matter, Sakura?" Sasuke's lip twitched as he fought the crazed smirk trying to stretch his mouth. "Aren't you _curious_?"

"You'd tell me?" she asked uncertain. "Before…you wouldn't before."

"Not that it's any of _your_ business," he replied coldly. "I didn't have all the facts before."

"Even if you didn't have the facts, you could have told me. I would have listened. I wanted to be there for you," Sakura replied with tears in her eyes.

Sasuke's face transformed in that moment, his shielded eyes becoming menacing and his lips parting to reveal a terrible smirk. Sakura tried to shrink back into her chair, but he leaned closer to her.

"Do you really think that you're something special?"

Her eyes widened, but she could find no words to defend herself or even the voice to speak.

"You can't fathom the depth of my pain, the strength of my hate," he continued. "You won't be able to do anything when I burn your beloved village to the ground."

"Maybe not," she replied, accepting that she truly had no power over her weakness. "But Naruto will stop you."

Sasuke snarled and grabbed her throat just under her bruised jaw, making Sakura gasp. "You're wrong!" He squeezed his fingers into her soft flesh and watched her face distort with the need for air. "When he comes for you, I will kill him."

Sakura watched him through widened, bloodshot eyes, her throat burning. Fear clawed at her chest. "N-no," she rasped. "Let me g-go…"

She felt his hands tighten around her throat and her vision swirled. Her body felt like it was burning, and darkness clouded her eyes. Suddenly, her head dropped to her chest and air filled her lungs. Sasuke watched her with a disgusted sneer on his face. He swiftly reached forward and Sakura cried when he sharply pulled on her hair, yanking her head back. She opened her bleary eyes to see Sasuke staring down at her bruised face. She saw his other hand coming toward her and she shut her eyes, fearing he would hit her again. When she felt cold fingers lightly tracing her jaw, she trembled.

"You are such a pathetic girl," he said in a low voice. "So dependent on others. So naïve to think that they won't let you down or _stab you in the back_," he growled.

His words reminded Sakura of the day she went to Iron Country. She remembered how she had lied to Naruto, gassed her teammates, deceived Sasuke, and tried to kill him. She tried to stab him in the back, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill the man she so desperately wanted to save and bring home. Back then, she thought there was still hope for him, that Naruto would change him. Perhaps she'd been wrong. If she had gone through with it, if she had plunged her kunai deep into his back, deep enough to puncture a lung or sever his spinal cord, she wouldn't be here. She wouldn't be his prisoner. Yet…at the same time, she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Perhaps she would be dead, unable to continue knowing that he was gone for good. She loved him. Even now, she couldn't find it in her heart to feel any hatred toward him.

Tears streamed down her face. "But I didn't," she whispered. "I couldn't."

His eyes narrowed. "Nothing you say will make me forget what you did. I will never forgive you for your betrayal."

"I didn't betray you," she replied. "You betrayed me!"

He yanked harder on her hair and she winced at the pain in her scalp. "I protected you!"

Her eyes sparkled as she stared at him in disbelief. "What?"

Sasuke's eyes widened as if he realized he'd said something wrong. Finally, he released her hair and returned to his chair across from her. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, watching her with hollow eyes.

"That's all."

"What do you mean, _that's all_?" Sakura asked furiously. "You're done smacking me around for the day? You're done messing with my head? You're done speaking because you're afraid of what you might say?"

"I said that's all," he replied flatly.

Sakura struggled in her binds. "Well, I'm not _done_!" She squirmed and bounced her chair and raged, her hair flailing in all directions. "I won't let you kill Naruto! If you go that far, you'll never come back and I can't let that happen!" She was crying now. "You can kill me and it might not mean a thing, I don't know. But I do know that if you kill Naruto, it will destroy you."

"Shut up," Sasuke said through clenched teeth.

"You might be broken and you might break me, but you will never break Naruto. He's better than you."

"Shut up."

"I will not shut up!" she screamed. "You will listen to me, Uchiha Sasuke! I will never be able to physically stop you—not because I don't have the power, but because my heart won't let me. I only have my words and, maybe one day, you'll remember what I said and it might just make a difference."

Sasuke stood and once again grabbed Sakura by the throat in an attempt to silence her and, though she sputtered for a moment, she fixed him with her fiercest glare.

"I told you to shut up. It's in your best interest to do as I say."

She moved her lips in an attempt to speak, but her voice came out in a breathy rasp. "S-Sasuke-k-kun…stop b-before you c-can't."

Sasuke towered over her, squeezing harder. "It's already too late."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait, my beta and I are both super busy. It's been a long summer, thankfully it's almost over. Hopefully, life will slow down a bit.

Good news, I already have the next chapter of "Remember the Sunlight" written and sent out for betaing. I know wingedmercury is out for a while to do some other business she's got going on, so I'm not sure when that will be out. As for me, I have all day off and I plan to spend it writing. I've got the next chapter of "We are Extinct" to write and hopefully I can jump onto chapter 4 of this story.

Like a lot of you, I am in school so I can't give you exact dates for when my stories will be updated, so please be patient with me.

As always, thanks to my lovely reviewers and to the ever nonsuckish amazing wingedmercury for her awesome betaing.

Till next time...


	4. A Final Goodbye AUTHOR'S NOTE

Dearest loyal and amazing readers,

This actually is rather sad for me to say, but due to some major changes in my life, I will no longer be a part of the Fanfiction community. The stories I've been writing will not be updated or finished and, by this time two weeks from now, I will sign off forever. I'm sorry about this sudden change of events, but at the same time…I'm not because it's what's best for me right now. There is so much going on in my life, I ask that you will remember me and, if you are the praying type, that you will pray for me.

If someone ever asks me, I will never deny that Fanfiction was a joy. I learned so much about myself as a writer and improved vastly. I met wonderful people and made great friends. And as an author, it is such a joy and exciting thing to hear from my readers and connect with you. Fanfiction has been a blessing for me.

I leave this last author's note and promise that I will reply to anyone who has questions or concerns, or goodbyes. Just know, that I will never stop writing. If you want to stay connected with me and my writing, you can find me on wordpress, tumblr, twitter, and facebook. See my profile for the links, or you can ask me for them.

I'm deeply thankful for everything Fanfiction and you, my readers, have done for me. I ask that God bless you in your lives.

Sincerely,

Tukiko K

Cynthia


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